Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-01-08
Black Hills Tin.

operations In the Southern and Central
Hills, appears in the Chicago Mining
Review Of Dec 3Oth:
RAPID CITY. ID. T.--When the Eta
mill was building and before it ever
started running it was the unanimous
opinion of the miners of Custer and
Pennington counties that, whether the
ore paid or not, the mill would not run
any great length of time; their argu.
mont was this, If the ore did not pay, of
course the mill would not run long; if
it paid they would shut the mill down
and buy more mines. The mill run for
a short time and then shut down. The
mine could not furnish ore for the mill,
and the mill could rot work the ore
successfully. The reason the mine
could not furnish the ore was. the
general manager and superintendent
were both persons Of no experience In
mining of any kind, and knew nothing
whatever Of taking out ore much less Of
handling from 100 to 40 men in mine
without shaft, drift, incline or winze.
1t was regular picnic for the farmer
boys and Cornish miners who were en-
| ploved in the mine and on the hill out.
side Of the mine. One of the Cornish
men remarked that it was the softest
job he ever saw. Another SAID, the less
man knew about mining the longer
he would hold his job under that man
agement. During the time the mill was
| running no one was allowed either i'm
or on the mine, nor in the mill but the
tailings from the mill were free for all
to look at and take Of Hundreds of
tests have been made on these taiings
and they are found to run about one
and three.fourths per cent black tim
Whether this tin was lost purposely or
no, is al open question.
The prevailing opinion is that the
management did not know that they
were not saving all the tin. At any
rate Mr.. Wilson (the largest stock
holder in the Harvey Peak Tin Mining,
| Milling and Manufacturing Company
claims they did not know that they
were losing any tin. He now says that
| there is $4,000 worth of black tin in
| the tailings. An article in the Chicago
| ter-Ocean Of either June or July, 1886,
| states that the reason the mill shut
down was because the company wanted
to buy more tin property. 1t is reason.
able to suppose that the aforesaid ar.
ticle was approved before publication
by the management Of the Harney Peak
Tin Mining, Milling and Manufacturing
Company, as officers Of the company
were with the Inter Ocean correspon-
dent during all the time he was making
the examination of their property. In
this article he never mentioned any tin
property except that Of the Harney
Peak Tin Mining, Milling and Manu-
featuring Company, with the exception
Of two claims near Hill City. In men
tioning these he only did so when quot
ing what Professor Blake said. This
correspondent states among other things
that the aforesaid company own all the
water rights and all the tin mines (then
discovered) that were worth having
The facts Of the matter are they owned
about one per cent. of each at that time.
With recent purchases they now own
and control probably five per cent of
the whole number Of tin mines now
discovered in Custer and Pennington
counties. Their general manager, Mr..
Hepburn, stated in May, 1884, that
their company represented capital to
the amount of fifty million dollars, and
that they intended to buy all the tin
mines that were in the Black Hills.
They have evidently bit off more than
they can chew. AS there are more than
1000 tin claims recorded in Custer and
Pennington counties that this company
have no interest in. One of these
claims is held at 100000, while ten, IF
teen and twenty thousand dollar claims
are common. 1t will take several mil
| lion dollars to obtain control of all the
tin mines in the Black Hills. The Har-
ney Peak Tin Mining, Milling and
Manufacturing Company have within
the past ten days paid out more than
$4,000 for tin claims in the two counties
above named. They have also very re-
Gently sunk twenty feet at the end of
the lower tunnel in the Eta, all in good
ore. The pay streak is eight feet wide
| and will go more than six per cent.
black tin. No one in this country be-
lieves the tin mines will not pay.
The Harney Peak Company certainly
think they will pay or they would not
now be buying. If the tin mines were
failure, the Eta mill would have
run much longer than it did. Has any
of their stock been offered for sale at
any price? Has any effort been made
to sell the stock2 If there has the peo-
pie OF this country have not found it
! out.
Whenever the tin mines of the Black
Hills are worked by experienced men
with plenty of capital to work with,
| then they will nav. When that time